Chapter 3.15 below.)
MOUNT GRANARD, FIRST POINT TO BE ATTAINED.
March 19.
Our stores being completed we proceeded along the course of the little rivulet of Buree, towards the Lachlan. My first object was to gain Mount Granard, described by Mr. Oxley as the most elevated pic of a very high range, and laid down on his map to the westward of where the Lachlan takes a remarkable turn from its general direction towards the low country more to the southward. I had long thought that it might be possible to ascertain from this hill whether any range extended westward of sufficient magnitude to separate the basins of the Murray and the Darling. I wished to visit it last year, but the loss of Mr. Cunningham, the consequent delay of the party, and the adverse nature of my instructions in regard to my own views, together prevented me. I then saw that the hills along the line I was now about to follow were favourable for triangulation; but the greater certainty of finding water in a large river like the Lachlan was my chief inducement for now moving towards its banks, as the season was of such unusual drought. On this day's journey I took for my guidance the bearing of a line drawn on the map from Buree, as fixed by my former survey, to the mouth of Byrne's creek, as laid down by Mr. Oxley; and which I supposed to be the same as that which descends from Buree.
HALT ON A DRY CREEK.
The line guided me tolerably well to where I encamped that night. This was on a fine-looking plain, within sight of the wooded banks of the creek; but, on examining the bed of the latter, I could find no water, although I followed it two miles down. There I arrived at a cattle station named Toogang, where there was water. It was nothing to the old hands of the Darling to go only TWO miles for water. We suffered no inconvenience from this; but it was deplorable to see the bed of what must in some seasons be a fine little stream so completely dry and dusty. This day we met with a new species of Psoralea.* At the camp I ascertained the magnetic variation to be 9 degrees 10 minutes 15 seconds East, by an observation of the star Beta Centauri.
(*Footnote. A genus chiefly inhabiting the Cape of Good Hope, India, the Levant and North America, of which no species have before been published from Australia. I was subsequently fortunate enough to discover two more species of this genus; which with one as yet unpublished, found by Mr. Allan Cunningham in 1818 in the rocky islands of Dampier's Archipelago on the north-west coast, makes the number inhabiting Australia to be 4: all of which are remarkable for their resemblance to the North American form of the genus. The species we observed on this occasion was a small spreading herbaceous plant. P. patens, Lindley manuscripts; herbacea, pubescens, foliis pinnatim trifoliolatis, foliolis dentatis punctatis lateralibus oblongis obtusis intermedio ovato obtuso basi cuneato, racemo pedunculato laxo multifloro foliis multo longiore, bracteis subrotundis striatis obscure multipunctatis, ramis divaricatis.)
March 20.
We proceeded, crossing the channel near the cattle station where I learnt that it was joined immediately below by that which I had named King's creek on my last journey; also that water was abundant in it below the junction. Some natives joined us and Piper prevailed on one of them to be our guide, as far as he knew the country. The use of such a guide in following an unexplored watercourse is that bad places for the carts may be avoided, and the doubles of the stream cut off by the easiest routes.
BREAK A WHEEL.
In crossing a gully which entered the creek near another station, called Chilberengaba, we broke a wheel, and though we had travelled only about seven miles we were obliged to encamp, and remain until the carpenter and the smith could repair it.
ATTEMPT TO ASCEND MARGA.
In the meantime I set out with the native guide for the summit of Marga, which proved to be one of my old fixed points. It was about seven miles south-west of our camp; but after a most fatiguing ascent of two steep and rocky ridges, during great heat, I was obliged to return without reaching Marga. At the cattle station we heard of a bullock which had been left by us in an exhausted state during our last expedition; and we succeeded in bringing it in, and in laying the yoke on its neck for another visit to the banks of the Darling; it was fitter than any other of our working bullocks. I added a second species of Psoralea to that discovered yesterday, a small graceful plant with racemes of purplish minute flowers, elevated far above the leaves, and on slender stalks so tough as to be broken only with some difficulty.*
(*Footnote. P. tenax, Lindley manuscripts; herbacea, depressa, perennis, glabra, foliis glandulosis palmatim 5-foliolatis, foliolis linearibus vel lineari-oblongis obtusis, racemis cylindraceis longissime pedunculatis erectis, leguminibus ovatis scabris glabris.)
March 21.
According to arrangements made with Captain King and Mr. Dunlop, the King's astronomer at the Parramatta observatory, I halted the party this day in order to make hourly observations of the barometer, thermometer, the sky, etc. This plan had been strongly recommended by Sir John Herschel; and for our present purposes it was most desirable in order that we might ascertain how far the fluctuations of the atmosphere in two places so distant as Parramatta and Byrne's creek corresponded in these simultaneous observations. During our last journey some discrepancies in the heights determined by the barometer on the Darling led to a suspicion that the fluctuations at such great distances, in situations so dissimilar, might vary considerably; and this was now to be ascertained.
THE PARTY IMPEDED BY ROCKS.
March 22.
We continued our journey along the left bank of the creek, but with considerable difficulty and delay occasioned by the projection of the rocky escarpment of the above-mentioned extremities of Mount Marga; so that we had to break away masses of rock and move the carts one by one, all hands assisting. We at length gained a pleasant tract of land on which the grass was green and luxuriant in consequence of some partial rain; and on this place I encamped with the intention of next day ascending Marga. In the creek we found ponds, deep and clear like canals; their borders being reedy and their margins green. In these ponds the natives speared several fishes which had however a muddy flavour. Among them was one, apparently the eel-fish, caught during my first expedition in the Namoi and upper Darling.* This circumstance was rather in favour of the supposition that the streams unite; but still the fish seemed somewhat different.
(*Footnote. Plotosus tandanus see Volume 1.)
SNAKES.
On this day's journey we saw several large snakes; one, large and black, was shot while swimming in a pond in the creek; the others were of that kind named, from the beautifully variegated skin, the carpet snake. The natives considered the latter very fierce and dangerous, saying it never ran away but always faced or pursued them. It had in fact the flat broad head and narrow neck which in general characterise the most venomous snakes, also large fangs hooked inwards, which the natives particularly pointed out. It had also, near the tail, two articulations with something like a toe and joint on each, such as I had not observed before in any other kind of snake. A smaller one of the same kind attacked one of the party, and also a native, but the former shook it from his clothes, it then fixed its teeth in the skin of the native who detached it with difficulty; but as no blood came from the bite he seemed to care little about it. The native name of this place was Cuenbla.
VIEW FROM MARGA.
March 23.
I set off, accompanied by my black guide mounted, for the top of Marga, and we reached it this time by a route in which the native displayed the usual skill of his race. Certainly I never ascended a hill of more perplexing features, all these heights being also of extremely difficult access, very steep and extending in the direction of 10 and 12 degrees East of North. They consist of the sharp edges of inclined strata of hard purple-coloured clay-slate. I was however rewarded for the fatigues this hill had cost me, on two different days, not with a fine view, for the summit was too woody for that, but with a sight of some important points determined during my late journey; and others which I had then observed only from the Canobolas but which I was now enabled to fix by angles observed from this station. The most important point visible besides the Canobolas was Mount Lachlan, by means of which I determined the true situation of Marga and the neighbouring hill Nangar; which is rather higher but more wooded, and 2 1/2 miles distant towards the south-east. These two form the summits of an isolated mountain mass on the left bank of Byrne's creek, the top of Marga being about 1000 feet above our camp on its banks. I drew outlines (according to my usual custom) of all the hills on the horizon before us, and took angles on them with the theodolite. Descending by a shorter route I reached the camp in time to protract my angles, whereby I ascertained to my great satisfaction that both Marga and Nangar had been truly fixed from the Canobolas, as well as other points observed in my former journey, the accuracy of which, by a good angle with Mount Lachlan, I was thus enabled to prove without going out of my way, besides establishing there a good base for extending the survey southward.
March 24.
Our guide was now joined by some older natives, and one of them had been examining the country ahead, being anxious about the safe passage of our carts. His reconnaissance had not been made in vain, for he led us to an easy, open pass through a range of which we had heard much from stockmen as likely to trouble us because, as they said, its rocky extremities overhung the creek. We crossed it with ease however, guided by the native. It consisted of granite and evidently belonged geologically to the ridge traversed by us on the second day after leaving Buree during our last journey. On the range, green pine trees (callitris) and a luxuriant crop of grass covering the adjacent country, multitudes of fat cattle were to be seen on all sides. I had heard that, after crossing the burnt up surface of the colony, I should see green pastures here, beyond its limits.
CROSS BYRNE'S CREEK.
We crossed Byrne's creek, near a cattle station called Lagoura, and after keeping its banks for four miles further (having for that distance granitic hills on our right) we finally quitted it, and passed over a grassy plain of the same kind of soil and character as those extensive level tracts seen during our last journey but having, what seemed singular to our unaccustomed sight, a coating of green herbage upon it.
NEW PLANTS.
In our progress I found no fewer than three new species of the pretty genus Trichinium;* a small species of Sida before undiscovered, with minute yellow flowers,** and also a fine-looking acacia with falcate leaves, singularly white or rather silvery, and with drooping graceful branches.***
(*Footnote.
1. Tr. alopecuroideum, Lindley manuscripts; caule ramoso glabro, foliis lanceolatis glabris subtus scabriusculis, spicis cylindraceis elongatis, bracteis rotundatis, calycibus herbaceis sursum calvis acutis, rachi pilosa, cyatho staminum dentato.
2. Tr. parviflorum, Lindley manuscripts; foliis ovatis acutis petiolatis subtus et caule furfuraceo-tomentosis, spicis gracilibus elongatis, bracteis acuminatis scariosis, calycibus lanatis, rachi lanata, staminibus inaequalibus distinctis.
3. Tr. sessilifolium, Lindley manuscripts; foliis oblongis obtusis sessilibus et caule furfuraceo-tomentosis, spicis oblongis, bracteis rotundatis lanatis, calycibus longe tubulosis lanatis sursum pilosis, rachi tomentosa, staminibus inaequalibus distinctis.)
(**Footnote. S. corrugata, Lindley manuscripts; incana, prostrata, pusilla, foliis subrotundis angulatis cordatis palminerviis serratis, pedunculis 2-3 filiformibus petiolis longioribus, fructu disciformi corrugato, coccis monospermis commissuris muricatis.)
(***Footnote. This proved to be a very distinct, undescribed species. A. leucophylla, Lindley manuscripts; gracilis, ramulis filiformibus angulatis albido-sericeis, phyllodiis lineari-lanceolatis falcatis apice uncinatis obscure 2-nerviis appresse et densissime sericeis: margine superiore basi subglanduloso, racemis umbellatis axillaribus phyllodio multo brevioribus.)
REACH THE LACHLAN.
Travelling four miles more across level forest land, we reached the banks of the Lachlan at Waagan,* a cattle station a mile and a half below the junction of Byrne's creek of Oxley, which we had just traced in its course from Buree.
(*Footnote. Waagan means a crow in the native language.)
FIND ITS CHANNEL DRY.
I beheld in the Lachlan all the features of the Darling, but on a somewhat smaller scale. The same sort of large gumtrees, similar steep, soft, muddy banks; and, even in this place, a margin with an outer bank. But its waters were gone, except in a few small ponds in the very deepest parts of its bed. Such was now the state of that river down which my predecessor's boats had floated. I had during the last winter drawn my whaleboats 1600 miles overland without finding a river where I could use them; whereas Mr. Oxley had twice retired by nearly the same routes, and in the same season of the year, from supposed inland seas!